Guest Article from Liz Lucking: Try Your Hand at Buy to Let

Ever wondered what it would be like to buy a run down property, renovate it and turn it back into a family home or apartment?

There are some braver investment landlords that are putting their trust in well known letting agents, to find the properties at a reduced price due to the properties requiring upgrading. One such letting agent is Belvoir Lettings of Peterborough and Corby. They arrange with a local maintenance company, in this instance Westone Housing Services of Peterborough, and they will quote for all the work before any offer is accepted.

Once the deal has been agreed with the vendor of the property, Belvoir Lettings in conjunction with Houses2order, then email all their clients that are looking for these deals, the details and the first client to confirm they want to go ahead, gets the deal.

Obviously these clients are usually in a position to complete within six weeks and have a mortgage reserved for just the right deal when it arises. Some of these deals enable the client to purchase the property, for £110k spend anything up to £12k on the upgrade, and still draw down after a re-valuation possibly of £135k-£140k within three months of completion.

These properties are out there, but it may pay someone locally to look for you. They have the experience and know what faults to look for:-

• How old is the boiler?• Are there any leaks from the tank?• Does the electric fuse board need upgrading?• Where are electric sockets in the kitchen situated, many are over the cooker area and don’t comply?• Is there 300ml of work surface either side of the cooker?• Are there any visible signs of staining to the ceiling below the bathroom or other wet areas? • Are there numerous layers of wallpaper that if removed may pull off the plasterwork?• Are the roof tiles all there and intact?• Are the gutters full of weeds and attached correctly?

All these issues need checking as to put right will raise a cost implication. These issues are not a problem but a benefit to renegotiate the price.

Another reason to have Belvoir Lettings do this for you is that they are not concerned if they upset the vendor, when they offer a much lower asking price.

When in the past have you purchased a car and offered £500 below the asking price and your partner has cringed and said you can’t do that, there are no rules that say you have to pay what someone asks for. You pay what you are prepared to pay and if they won’t accept then you don’t have to buy.

There are plenty of properties out there, especially in the present market so you take your pick.